An otherwise honest gambler, played by
Jack Holt, begins to cheat at cards in order to put his son
John Darrow through mining school in this lavish Zane Grey adaptation produced by Paramount. The callow foster-son pays back the noble gesture by running off with Holt's mistress,
Olga Baclanova. They are stopped by the avalanche of the title and the forgiving Holt manages to rescue both their lives. While acknowledging that
Olga Baclanova of the Moscow Art Theater was slightly out of place in this rough and tumble Western melodrama, the trade-paper Variety praised her performance as one of the main reasons for the film's success. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide